Tonight's guests include:
Jon Ralston, columnist for the Las Vegas Sun and host of “Face to Face with Jon Ralston”
Jared Bernstein, former member of President Obama's economic team and former economic adviser to Vice President Biden, currently a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and MSNBC contributor
While watching tonight's video preview, take a listen to tonight's soundtrack. (Just be sure to let the ad below finish playing before starting the song).
Executive producer Bill Wolff shares a preview of tonight's show:
Leave a Comment:
Hey Bill where you been ? Yes you were Missed
Knocked out by some kind of flu/cold hybrid something-or-other!
Is our lovely Dr. Maddow going to be on tonight for the NV caucuses or just tomorrow morning on MTP?
PS- is it caucuses or cauci?
Private Sector Jobs are improving, but we are still losing Government Jobs and this is slowing the overall improvements in the economy. Weak Consumer Spending from the poverty stricken and low income areas of the country are also contributing to the anemic recovery. Trickle down economics generated from the Obama Stimulus is slowly improving the economy, but the wealthy who received the "benefits" from the Obama stimulus will not throw enough "spare change" into the street for the pee-ons to fight over until their incomes begin to recede do the the lack of "Consumer Spending." If we want a robust recovery, we must eliminate the Bush Tax Cuts and stimulate the anemic areas of the country. 47% of the Country does not pay income tax because they do not earn enough money to do so, so if we increase the incomes of 47% to a level where they begin paying taxes, we will also increase "Consumer Spending" Consumer Spending is 70% of the U.S. Economy.
NOTE: If we, the wealthy, hold out long enough, we may slide though this again without a tax increase for the wealthy. They almost "got us" several times over the past 30 years, but we continue to slide by the inevitable. Eventually we will have to pay our "fair share" of taxes.
Is it so hard to elect a President who values all our opinions? Between Santorums blah people, Newts janitor people and Mitt's "screw the poor" people, I am concerned that we will never elect a President who cares about all of us. Unless Obama gets 20 terms, civil rights will remain stagnant for the next 80 years.
Funny thing is this. Didn't Rick Scary care about all of us?
Manufacturing Jobs are directly related to Wall Street Profits, but the outsourcing of these jobs to improve corporate profits is turning out to be the biggest disaster the U.S. has ever seen. Until Corporate America begins to place Consumer Spending ahead of Shareholder Profits, we will experience declines in the U.S. GDP. A healthy economy is entirely dependent on a financially healthy consumer who can spend at random.
If you spend too much on Wall Street Profits and too little on the majority of the population of a country, you will starve the economy to death. This is the problem with the U.S. economy and our "trickle down economics" is nothing more than a "short term fix" for a "long term problem," and after we generate more record amounts of millionaires, we will return to the same economic mess in 5 to 10 years.
If we are going to balance out the economy for the long term, we must address the issues of the record number of Americans at Poverty & Low Income.
Rachel, I don't want to seem petty or take anything away from our returning vets. I understand because I've been there and done that as they say... Where's the respect and thanks for us, the Viet Nam Vets? I don't remember any big parades or very many well-known people showing their thanks, etc. Please don't forget or ignore us.
C. Clark
USMC Viet Nam Vet
I agree. I served in the USAFSS between 1971 and 1975. Though I never had a tour in Vietnam, I had friends who served there, one who survived the crash landing of a surveillance aircraft on the runway (it'd been shot up, made it back to base, landing while on fire, people burned alive, he survived). I definitely recognized the difference in my friend before he left for Vietnam (a happy-go-luck cut-up) and afterward when I saw him at another assignment (more serious, a haunted look in his eyes).
So, why wasn't a parade ever held honoring Vietnam War veterans?
I got out in 1975 around the time the last U.S. helicopter airlifted people off the roof of the U.S. embassy in Vietnam. Gerald Ford had only been president for about eight or so months, having already pardoned Richard Nixon, in an attempt to sweep the infamous Nixon presidency under the historical rug...which is why no parade was held then or since.
Democrats in Congress were busy trying to clean up the mess Nixon left behind, prosecuting Republicans and enacting laws to try to stop these widespread Republican crimes from happening again, while Republicans were busy trying to sweep all that Nixon cronies did under the rug, including all the Republican lies, deceits and treacheries involving the Vietnam War.
Remember, Nixon in 1968 told everyone that he had a secret plan to get us out of Vietnam. Around the same time he was saying this, his presidential campaign was sabotaging the Paris Peace Talks, going behind President Johnson's back to treasonously negotiate with South Vietnamese representatives in Paris. Result? Seven more deadly years of the Vietnam War.
If Ford hadn't pardoned Nixon and a full-scale investigation of the Nixon administration had ensued, of Watergate and beyond, then the treachery of Nixon and Republicans might have been exposed. So, Nixon was pardoned and Republicans tried their hardest to forget Vietnam War. Thus, no parade, no honoring of our nation's heroes who fought valiantly in Vietnam War, well, you know, because the Vietnam War was based on a lie just like the Iraq War was based on and sustained by another right-wing lie.
Based on the premise (completely false premise) that was used by Bush/Cheney Republicans to get us into a war in Iraq in the first place, New York City would seem to be the ideal place to hold a "victory" parade honoring our troops who fought bravely in Iraq, with the parade starting and ending at the World Trade Center 9/11 memorial.
Aaaah, now I remember. The Bush/Cheney administration lied us into war in Iraq by falsely claiming a link between Iraq and al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks. No such link existed. There were no al Qaeda training camps in Iraq. Saddam Hussein did not coordinate in any way with al Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks or after. There were no Iraqis among the suicidal and murderous 9/11 hijackers. But Bush/Cheney Republicans used 9/11 fears to still push an attack against Iraq, minus any evidence that Iraq was even remotely involved in the 9/11 attacks. All Bush/Cheney Republicans had were specious claims by Iraqi exile serial fabricators, claims that were all proved false.
And yet, due to all these Republican lies we ended up in Iraq (taking our nation's eye off Afghanistan), with some of our soldiers serving in Iraq even believing that they were there in Iraq in response to the 9/11 attacks, because they'd been told incessantly by right-wing television and radio that Iraqis were complicit in the 9/11 attacks.
So, I have a simple suggestion.
The World Trade Center 9/11 memorial should be a tripartite memorial.
1) for the nearly 3,000 American citizens killed by the Saudi-financed al Qaeda on 9/11.
2) for the tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers either killed or maimed in Iraq, sent into combat in Iraq by right-wing Republican lies, killed or maimed in Iraq supposedly because Iraq was somehow involved in the 9/11 attacks.
3) for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed or maimed after Bush/Cheney Republicans ordered U.S. forces into Iraq, as well as for the millions of Iraqi citizens displaced and turned into refugees by what Bush/Cheney Republicans did.
IOW, many wreaths for the fallen should be placed at the WTC 9/11 memorial, all those killed on 9/11 but also wreaths for all those who were the collateral damage of the infamous and criminal Bush/Cheney Republicans' war in Iraq.
And a post-Iraq War parade honoring our troops who served in Iraq (many who've also served in Afghanistan), one held in New York City, seems more than appropriate, and should be held ASAP, maybe when the weather clears in the upcoming months of Spring. And the WTC 9/11 memorial should be part of any such parade, reminding everyone of how Bush/Cheney Republicans lied us into war in Iraq.
Chuck, I was a medevac corpsman in Viet Nam. While more recognition for those who faced the horrors of that war was forgotten, there is a legacy we started. We woke up the spirit of many Americans, and that probably helped us avoid another b.s. war until everyone forgot the pain and we got duped into Iraq. Sometimes perspective is difficult to find, but letting go of the slights helps. I appreciate your service!
You'll never go hungry or be thirsty if you're around me. One of you guys grabbed me and kept me from sliding out of a chopper after Hastings in 66 on the way to Charlie Med in Danang. I don't know who it was ... I was unconcious. Thanks to all you guys.
Rachel, can you answer a couple of questions? The President of United Steel Workers said that the OBAMA admin has won over 20 cases at the WTO some against CHINA. Did the wins at the WTO impact how american companies ship jobs overseas and in any way related to the rebound of manufacturing jobs in US? 2. Did the UAW get a seat on the Board of Directors at GM etc.... It is my understanding that it would be a good idea to have the auto workers voice on the Board with voting authority?? Just asking. Love your show.
Ms. Maddow,
Kudos to you and the staff for the best hour of TV, consistently. I hope you do not allow the dissembling, disingenuous David Brooks get away with his propaganda Sunday morning. His columns need to be rebutted. A possible short comment on the show would lift the spirits of disheartened and disgusted NY Times readers. (I apoligize for being off-topic).
LOVED the show today, speciaLLy so, I must say. The piece on Romney was pure excellence. Rachel was extra authentic on that one. We feel it too. And it's outrageous what's going on (union-busting/strategically decimating the Democratic Party's ability to compete in elections) --and no one is covering it like you guys. This is a steLLar aspect of the political landscape to crusade upon. We are all behind you, Rachel and Bill and co.
-a fan in Vancouver, BC
I sure hope you plan on posting the TRMS super bowl ad on the blog for those of us that have to work sunday; all-day sunday; until 9:00 PM at night sunday; :..{ and then must be at work 5:30 AM monday morn!! No super sunday for me; evah!
GO PATRIOTS!!
Federal Election Commission filings released this week showed that conservatives groups are amassing an ocean of cash for the 2012 presidential campaign. Thanks to the likes of the Koch brothers, the Walton clan and other of the usual suspects on the right, in 2011 conservative SuperPAC's outraised their liberal counterparts by more than seven to one. But if they win, rich Republican donors could more than get back the millions they invested. As it turns, just one law they are trying to buy - the elimination of the estate tax - could put billions of dollars back into their families' bank accounts. Of course, that gaping hole would have to be filled by all other American taxpayers.